A BRIDE TOO BEAUTIFUL?

The very magnitude of the Gaullist election victory made many Frenchmen apprehensive. "La mariee est trop belle (The bride is too beautiful)," mused one television commentator, meaning that so decisive a victory placed on the Gaullists an inescapable and unparalleled burden for France's future. "The Gaullist tank is more powerful than ever, but it no longer has any brakes," warned Temoignage Chretien (Christian Witness), a liberal Catholic weekly. "What a temptation for the driver to roll right over any opposition!"

In a second-round sweep that embraced just about every area and social class in France, the Gaullists last week won 294 seats in the 487-seat Assembly. De Gaulle's party thus became the first in nearly 100 years to win an outright majority in that chamber. His major leftist rivals, the Communists and the Federation of the Democratic Socialist Left, lost more than half of the seats that they had held in the outgoing Assembly, ended up with a combined total of only 90 votes. Though many of the Gaullists were almost indecently gleeful about their victory, Premier Georges Pompidou was restrained. "The first of our duties is not to abuse this victory," he said. In a conciliatory gesture, he invited the Gaullists' old allies, the Independent Republicans of Valery Giscard d'Estaing, and the centrists to join his Cabinet in what he called "a broad union capable of making decisions and implementing reforms." Pompidou's motives, however, were not inspired purely by a dedication to parliamentary democracy: he will need the support of the Giscardists and centrists if he runs for the presidency after De Gaulle departs.

The renewed Gaullist regime looked disturbingly similar to the one that had been so badly shaken by the May riots. In foreign affairs, for example, no shifts in policy and no mitigation of Gaullist diplomatic arrogance are in sight. In fact, under the chauvinistic new Foreign Minister Michel Debre, French abrasiveness may well increase. The chances for Britain to get into the Common Market are as remote as ever. Nor is there any likelihood that France will heed the plea of Common Market President Jean Rey to abandon the right to veto major proposals and to give the Market's supranational agencies more power to regulate trade. As Common Market Vice President Sicco Mansholt declared: "The Gaullist victory means an important delay in the political progress of Europe."

Three Reforms. Even so, Western diplomats may find temporary solace in the fact that for some time France will lack the economic strength to speculate against the pound and dollar. Despite its announcement of impending nuclear tests, France must also slow down the development of its force de frappe, whose creation runs directly counter to the present world trend of bringing nuclear weaponry under controls. Charles de Gaulle will now have to pay much more attention to domestic affairs. He has already moved fast in the area of greatest peril, the economic front. Despite France's huge foreign-reserve losses, De Gaulle seems to have managed to stave off any immediate devaluation of the franc. In an effort to ease inflationary pressures within France, he last week allowed new Economics Minister Maurice Couve de Murville to hike the bank rate by 1.5% to 5%, the highest in the Common Market.

De Gaulle also intends to move fast on his reform program. In last week's Cabinet meeting, he told his Ministers that he interpreted the election victory as a massive mandate for his reforms, three of which seem to have top priority in his mind. One is a university reform that would give students a voice in administration. Another would take away the power of the president of the French Senate to act as interim President of France, so that De Gaulle can stage-manage his own succession. The final, and probably most complex, one concerns "participation," which De Gaulle envisions as a new way of life for Frenchmen that would allow workers to share in both the managerial decisions and profits at their plants.

Beware of Landslides. The Gaullist sweep left the opposition in almost total disarray, and it buried, at least for the present, the reputations of some leftist leaders, including former Premier Pierre Mendes-France and Francois Mitterrand. The number of Communist seats dropped from 73 to 34, a bare four above the 30 minimum required for forming a separate parliamentary delegation. Having fallen from 42 to 27 seats, the centrists will have to lure Deputies from other parties in order to function as a party in the new Assembly. By contrast, the Gaullist-lining Giscardists gained 21 new seats for a total of 64, giving De Gaulle command of at least 358 Deputies.

In their euphoria, the Gaullists tended to overlook a very significant fact about the election. In the decisive second round of balloting, the popular vote was 6,762,110 for the Gaullist forces v. 6,116,890 for the combined leftist opposition, a winning margin of only 645,280. The reason the Gaullists won so many seats was that, in electoral districts where previously they had been relatively weak, their candidates attracted enough support to squeak to victory, sometimes by only 15 or so votes. The narrowness of the popular vote was a clear warning to the Gaullists that, if they do not succeed in the difficult task of rebuilding and remolding France, they might be on the short side of the landslide next time round.

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